Michaella McCollum made headlines in 2013 after she and another woman made headlines when they were arrested at an airport in Peru with a huge amount of cocaine in their luggage
One woman who might possess the resilience to tackle the gruelling challenges posed by the SAS is Michaella McCollum. Michaella first gained notoriety over a decade ago as one half of the infamous ‘Peru Two’, a pair of drug mules.
It all began on 6 August 2013 when Michaella, along with Melissa Reid, was detained at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru. They were caught with £1.5m worth of cocaine stashed in their luggage. Michaella had been coerced into smuggling the narcotics from Peru to Spain by an individual she had met in Ibiza. However, this decision would lead to her serving three years in one of South America’s most notorious prisons, before being released early.
Reflecting on her experiences, Michaella confesses that the consequences of her mistakes left her fearful of making another error, causing her to become excessively cautious and stuck in her ways. Her decision to participate in Channel 4’s SAS was motivated by her desire to regain control of her life.
Michaella remarks: “I feel like in my younger days, I made lots of mistakes, so then I was really cautious of doing things, because I didn’t want to mess up again. I didn’t want to mess up, I didn’t want to make any more mistakes.”, reports the Mirror.
“I had got to the point where I was just refusing to do a lot of things because I was scared. What if I mess it up? What if I take this job and it doesn’t work out? What if I move to this place and it doesn’t work out?
“I was just a little bit afraid of making those decisions. I felt stuck. So I guess that was the main thing for me, to try and learn to overcome that. But we can’t live life like that, because we’re always going to make mistakes, we’re always going to make bad choices, obviously not as bad a choice as I made previously, but it’s okay to make a mistake.”
Now aged 32, she’s stepping back into the limelight in the new series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Rebecca Loos and Conor Benn.
The celebs are put through their paces in the most gruelling phase of Special Forces selection, guided by an elite team of ex-Special Forces soldiers including Chief Instructor Billy Billingham.
First, she had to master swimming before joining the show, then face a tough interrogation from the SAS team, spar with her co-stars, and tackle a variety of other challenges.
Michaela recognises she’ll always be known as one half of the Peru Two, but she hopes her stint on the Channel 4 series will reveal a different side of her to the public. Speaking to the Mirror, she said: “It’s so easy to sit at home and judge somebody when somebody’s whole life is tearing apart. So I feel like it was important, I guess, when I got there, to show that I’m not just that girl who went to prison.”
She added: “So I guess that was the main thing for me, to try and learn to overcome that. I hope it kind of, softens the image so people get to see me in a different light.”
After spending three years in the infamous Ancon 2 jail, Michaella endured appalling living conditions, physical violence, while battling the legal system and learning to survive in an environment as hostile as it was brutal.
Following her release in 2015, Michaella set about rebuilding her life in Northern Ireland, earning a degree in International Business Management from Ulster University in 2023. She also discovered a newfound love for fitness, using it as a means to regain control over her life.
She often delivers talks about her transformation, conquering difficulties, and the risks of coercion, which has made her a sought-after speaker for law enforcement and community groups due to her experiences.
Off the screen, Michaela is a single mum to twin seven year old lads, who she reveals will be stunned by her feats on the show. She’s excited for them to witness their mum’s strength behind her glam exterior.
Michaela recalled: “I spoke to my kids about the show, and they didn’t want me to do the show, because they were like, ‘You’re going to die.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not going to die’ And like, ‘No, because this is really bad, and you’re going to break your nails.’ I’m like, ‘It’s fine. I can break my nails. It’s okay’.”
After having these chats with them post-filming, Michaela believes that when they watch the show, they’ll finally see her capability in a different light.
She added: “They’ll think it’s super cool to jump off a speedboat onto a helicopter. They’re going to see that mum is an action hero! I’m a single mum, so it’s just me in my household. They always say mum doesn’t do boy stuff but I hope when they see this and what I did I’ll be like, “Yeah, you see me?
“I can do what boys do too.” When questioned if she had gained any insights from the experience, in addition to her other life experiences, she responded: “I mean, they’re incredibly strong, resilient people.
“You don’t normally meet people that are faced with the challenges and the things that they have to do.
“And I guess when you listen to them and you talk to them, you realise that the things that you worry about in your everyday life really don’t freaking matter.
“The things we’re stressing about every day, they don’t matter when you have people like them in the Army or SAS. What they have to go through when they are in times of war, you don’t really understand that.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
